But he and
his doctrine disappeared beneath the waves of the orthodox ocean,
and apparently left no trace. For nearly three hundred years
longer the full sacred theory held its ground; but about the
opening of the sixteenth century another glimpse of the truth was
given by a Jew, Elias Levita, and this seems to have had some little
effect, at least in keeping the germ of scientific truth alive.
The Reformation, with its renewal of the literal study of
the Scriptures, and its transfer of all infallibility from the
Church and the papacy to the letter of the sacred books,
intensified for a time the devotion of Christendom to this sacred
theory of language. The belief was strongly held that the writers
of the Bible were merely pens in the hand of God (_Dei calami_).
hence the conclusion that not only the sense but the words,
letters, and even the punctuation proceeded from the Holy Spirit.
Only on this one question of the origin of the Hebrew points was
there any controversy, and this waxed hot.
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